8/13/2019 The Right Way to Learn Modes

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The Right Way To Learn Modes

author: warlordjoe92 date: 08/28/2012 category:scales

Alright, I've been seeing a lot of lessons on here about modes lately and theyall give you the same bull, "To play Dorian mode all youhave to do is play your G major scale starting and

ending on an A"... That's not really right, that would stilljust be G major. Now listen, I'm not gonna take the

time to tye out all the mode shaes, atterns, bo!es,whatever you wanna all them. If you haven't learnedthose already #even though they're just the major salesread out over the entire fret board$ then go look atone of the other mode lessons on here and ome bakto this later. Alright, here we go... %irst of all I'm gonnagive you the names of all the modes. Ionian &orian

hrygian (ydian )i!olydian Aeolian (orian Now, I'mgonna give two lists. The first will be the way mostlessons tell you to lay the modes. The seond will be

my way whih will give you the notes in eah of themusing G major as the arent sale #arent sale just means the lain old majorsale you are using to derive the other modes from$. )ost lessons give you GIonian, A &orian, * hrygian, et. *ut these aren't the modes they're justshaes, beause you're still using the e!at same notes in every one of those.In other words, you're just laying G major all over the nek. THE WRONG

WAYG Ionian (Major) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F#,G) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1)

A Dorian (minor) (A,B,C,D,E,F#,G,A) (2,3,4,5,6,7,1,2)

B Phryian (minor) (B,C,D,E,F#,G,A,B) (3,4,5,6,7,1,2,3)

C !y"ian (Major) (C,D,E,F#,G,A,B,C) (4,5,6,7,1,2,3,4)D Mio$y"ian (Major) (D,E,F#,G,A,B,C,D) (5,6,7,1,2,3,4,5)

E A%o$ian (minor) (E,F#,G,A,B,C,D,E) (6,7,1,2,3,4,5,6)

F# !o&rian ("imini'h%") (F#,G,A,B,C,D,E,F#) (7,1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

+ee what I mean -very one of these has the e!at same notes, beause theyare all the e!at same sale. (et me larify something real uik before I make

my version of this list... The list of modes I just gave you is not really wronger se, it's just that most guitarists see that and think something like "So if Ihave a chord progression of G major, A minor, and E minor and I wanna playmodally over it, I would play G ionan, A dorian, and E Aeolian". That's what'swrong with, and what I hate, about all the other lessons I've seen, they leadeole to believe that modes are just a fany way to refer to hunks of the

major sale.HERE'S WHAT MAKES MODES DIFFERENT

G Ionian (Major) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F#,G) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1)G Dorian (minor) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1)

G Phryian (minor) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G)

(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1)

G !y"ian (Major) (G,A,B,C#,D,E,F#,G) (1,2,3,#4,5,6,7,1)

G Mio$y"ian (Major) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1)

G A%o$ian (minor) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G)

(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1)

G !o&rian ("imini'h%") (G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G)

(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1)

This is how you should see modes. Notie how if you base them all off G the

differenes between them beome very aarent. Now for the easy art. I'm

now going to tell you how to use them... (et's say for e!amle, you have thesame hord rogression as earlier #G), Am, and -m$ just three simle triads.

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8/13/2019 The Right Way to Learn Modes

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Now, you ould always just lay it safe and noodle around with the G majorsale for the entire rogression, or you ould lay your newly learned modes/(et me show you hord by hord. %or the G) hord, you ould use any majormode #with G as the toni of ourse$. +o, you ould lay G Ionian, G (ydian, G)i!olydian, or even some strange ombination of the three over your G)

hord. %or the Am hord, you ould use any minor mode #this time using A asyour toni$. +o, you ould lay A &orian, A hrygian, A Aeolian, or ombine the

three in various ways over your Am hord. The -m hord would work e!atlylike the Am did, e!et you would use - &orian, hrygian, and Aeolian instead

of A. If your wondering about (orian, it goes with diminished hords and that'sit, so if we had an %0 diminished hord in our rogression than you would justlay %0 (orian. It gets better/ If your just using ower hords #whih aren'tdefined as major or minor$ you an use any of the major or minor modes youwant/ 1owever, the more intriate the hords you use #using 2ths, 3ths, et.$the less otions you have on what modes you use, beause you have to makesure the notes of the hord math with the notes of the mode. %or instane, ifyou layed a G) hord with a flat 2th, then you would need to lay G

mi!olydian would be your most likely hoie of mode beause it is )ajor andhas a flat 2th. Get it 4ell, this is all I an think of to try to e!lain modes...

It's kinda hard to e!lain without being able to sit in front of someone with aguitar and just show them haha. I hoe this hels anyone out there onfusedabout modes and why you should learn them.